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CITY  VALUES 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE 

SOCIAL  STATUS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  OF 

AMERICAN  CITY  LIFE 


BY 

C.  LINN  SEILER. 


/  -  \ 


AN  ABSTRACT  OF  A  THESIS  PRESENTED  TO 
THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL 
OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA, 
IN  PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  RE- 
QUIREMENTS FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR 
OF  PHILOSOPHY 


<u 


I.  THE  VIEWPOINT 

RAPID  transition  is  the  spirit  of  the  present  age.  All  about 
are  evidences  of  the  certain  decay  of  dogma  and  con- 
-  vention — in  science,  religion,  politics,  and  business.  No 
longer  does  the  old  order  please:  no  longer  can  the  ancient  super- 
stitions hold  the  mind  and  heart.  In  contrast,  we  find  a  more 
thorough  and  intelligent  inventory-taking  of  the  social  stock, 
a  more  rigorous  and  satisfactory  disposal  of  an  obsolete  and  worn- 
out  civilization.  The  narrow  emphasis  on  creed  is  giving  way  to  a 
broader  and  more  pragmatic  concept  of  ethical  life.  In  the  busi- 
ness world  there  is  an  unrest  that  denotes  a  keener  insight  into 
industrial  values  and  a  better  appreciation  of  large  national  issues. 
We  feel  stirrings  of  new  life  in  those  parts  of  the  body  social  that  we 
thought  dead  or  sleeping.  Fresh  incentives  revitalize  old  insti- 
tutions. New  associations  form  for  new  needs  and  works.  The 
younger  generation  is  playing  an  increasing  part  in  this  movement, 
not  only  in  the  furnishing  of  raw  material  for  a  more  electric  race, 
but  also  in  the  active  impetus  imparted  to  the  older  generation  by 
its  insistent  demands  for  a  more  efficient  and  satisfying  life.  To 
an  increasing  degree  are  we  becoming  more  intensely  alive — 
physically,  intellectually,  and  socially.  And  the  tendency  is  in 
the  direction  of  a  collective  appreciation  of  the  sacrifices  and 
pleasures  of  life — of  those  things  that  spell  comfort,  culture,  and 
citizenship  for  the  community  as  a  whole. 

The  most  interesting  phase  of  this  epoch  is  the  undeniable  and 
insatiable  desire  to  "know  things  as  they  really  exist/'  Sex 
psychology  and  sex  hygiene  are  rapidly  becoming  common  property 
as  topics  of  serious  conversation  and  thought.  We  are  finding 
out  why  our  cities  are  corrupt,  and  why  vice,  crime,  and  adulterated 
foods  exist.  The  magazines  and  newspapers,  quick  to  give  the 
public  what  it  wants,  open  their  columns  as  forums  of  discussion 
on  live  contemporary  topics.  The  keynote  of  this  phase  is  facts — 
real  facts — facts  that  have  a  meaning  to  each  man,  woman,  and 

3 

310419 


.     •  .•  ■  ..      -  CITY   VALUES 

child.  Also,  discussion  and  wide-spread  knowledge  are  acting  a* 
wholesome  checks  to  the  mob-like  public  opinion  so  easily  swayec 
by  the  quack  politician  or  moralist.  We  are,  for  the  first  time 
trying  properly  to  appraise  social  and  political  values  because 
we  are  beginning  to  see  them  in  their  true  relations. 

Another  intensely  interesting  feature  of  the  present  state  of  th( 
social  mind  is  the  emphasis  placed  on  the  concept  of  a  program 
We  want  a  plan — an  efficient,  convenient,  and  quick  method  foi 
obtaining  results.  There  is  a  high  premium  put  on  the  individua 
with  a  practical  plan.  Of  course,  one  may  find  both  the  pessi 
mist  and  the  optimist  in  all  the  different  grades  of  "programmists/ 
and  it  depends  largely  on  the  object  for  which  the  program  or  plar 
is  designed,  as  to  where  the  protagonists  and  antagonists  wil 
turn  for  adherence.  Though  a  program  is  unquestionably  neces 
sary  (since  it  represents,  as  it  were,  the  architect's  drawings  of  th< 
edifice  to  be  built),  a  knowledge  of  the  actual  conditions  for  whicl 
the  program  is  constructed  is,  however,  more  vitally  important 
To  see  values  clearly,  their  relationship  to  each  other  and  to  th< 
conditions  that  make  them  must  be  primarily  and  carefully  por 
trayed.  Unrelated  collections  of  facts  are  chiefly  ridiculous  be 
cause  no  vital  viewpoint  can  possibly  be  obtained  nor  any  concep 
of  justice  or  expediency  visualized.  Knowledge  of  condition: 
may  be  gleaned  from  different  angles,  depending  on  the  point  o 
view,  but  the  truest  angle  of  vision  is  that  throwing  the  diflferen 
parts  of  the  problem  into  proportional  relief,  where  each  can  b< 
seen  in  contrast  with  the  others.  Thus,  a  program  must,  in  the 
same  way,  fit  every  part  of  the  problem  it  is  designed  to  solve 
It  most  possess  unity  and  interrelation.  Its  potency  depends  or 
the  harmony  as  well  as  the  permanence  of  its  structure. 

Properly  to  visualize  mass-evolution  one  must  have  an  economi< 
viewpoint — that  is,  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  economic  relation: 
between  human  beings  and  the  results  of  such  relationships.  T( 
laud  property  rights  is  one  thing;  properly  to  value  human  right: 
is  quite  another.  The  former  is  a  political  attitude:  the  latter,  < 
matter  of  economic  morality.  One  tends  to  mold  us  into  a  narrow 
constitutional  form:  the  other  gives  us  the  capacity  for  socia 
enlargement  that  breaks  down  constitutional  fetters.  Physically 
speaking,  the  theory  of  property  rights  is  static,  as  compared  witr 

4 


THE   VIEWPOINT 

the  dynamic  one  of  human  rights.  Ethically  considered,  the  , 
former  is  monistic  and  exclusive;  the  latter,  pluralistic  and  mutual. 
We  have  been  accustomed  to  the  property  right  theory  for  so 
long  a  time  that  we  consider  it  impregnable,  and,  for  practically 
all  purposes,  entirely  satisfactory.  The  great  trouble  with  the 
theory  is  its  lack  of  permanence  as  a  social  program,  since  it  pre- 
supposes an  eternal  faith  in  the  sanctions  of  man-made  law. 
Accepting  this  doctrine,  political  issues  rather  than  human  prob- 
lems become  the  war  cries.  On  the  other  hand,  the  economic 
viewpoint  is  a  vital  motive  force,  acting  in  a  contagious  way, 
permeating  all  classes  and  ages,  breeding  by  discussion  and  knowl- 
edge, acquiring  momentum  as  it  lives.  With  it  not  only  can  mass- 
evolution  be  clearly  seen,  but  the  most  intimate  and  important 
economic  relations  between  us  and  our  neighbors  stand  out  in 
bold  relief,  showing  new  phases  of  the  problem,  exhibiting  new 
needs  and  desires,  giving  us  fresh  material  for  our  energies.  We 
discover  we  have  been  quarreling  over  methods  when  we  really 
lacked  a  definite  goal.  With  our  vision  on  a  goal,  new  possibilities 
arise — of  health,  happiness,  and  efficiency.  The  cost  of  ways  and 
methods  becomes  a  less  gloomy  and  troublesome  feature  of  our 
discussions,  while  values  interest  us  in  increasing  ratio.  Human 
life  then  becomes  vivid  and  valuable.  Play  becomes  mutual, 
desires  universal,  efficiency  collective.  We  gain  because  we 
mutualize  ourselves  and  our  interests.  With  this  attitude  we  can 
exchange  viewpoints — between  capital  and  labor,  between  mistress 
and  servant,  between  man  and  woman — because  we  have  dis- 
carded political  rights  for  human  interests. 

Of  the  many  economic  problems  that  engage  our  attention  in 
the  United  States  to-day,  none  has  more  possibilities  of  interest 
or  is  more  vital  and  absorbing  than  the  problem  of  city  life.  To 
some,  the  city  is  a  political  area  administered  by  a  particular 
governmental  machine  especially  designed  for  regulating  its 
affairs.  To  others,  it  represents  an  aggregation  of  individuals 
who  are  increasingly  efficient,  industrially  speaking,  because  of 
certain  advantages  in  location  and  co-operation.  Still  others 
look  upon  it  as  a  huge,  evil  melting-pot  into  which  everything  social 
is  thrown  and  from  which  are  continually  pouring  the  most  intense 
poverty,  the  greatest  vice,  and  the  deepest  degradation.     Each 

5 


CITY  VALUES 

of  these  groups  strives  to  amass  data  and  evolve  plans  for  re- 
habilitation, being  actuated,  in  each  case,  by  impulses  and  preju- 
dices that  result  from  their  particular  points  of  view.  And  though 
influential  in  their  respective  fields,  though  expert  and  enthusiastic, 
yet  none  are  permanently  effective  because  their  actions  are 
separated,  their  goals  indefinite.  The  problem  of  city  life  is  more 
than  a  local  one.  It  is  national  in  its  effects  on  the  morality  of 
the  country,  and  in  its  influence  in  determining  the  flux  of  human 
beings  over  the  national  area.  The  problem  must,  therefore, 
be  approached  in  the  same  broad  spirit.  Our  knowledge  of  cur- 
rent conditions  must  be  catholic  and  exhaustive.  Our  program 
must  stand  the  test  of  every  phase  of  the  subject  at  hand.  Every 
city  can  glean  from  the  experiences  of  every  other  in  the  way  of 
novel  methods  or  better  standards.  And  though  each  may  have 
particular  local  characteristics,  yet  all  have  common  relationships 
that  go  to  make  up  the  problem  of  urban  life. 

Generally  speaking,  there  are  two  sets  of  urban  problems:  those 
partially  solved,  and  those  as  yet  practically  untouched.  The 
former  center  themselves  about  our  political  viewpoint  of  citizen- 
ship: the  latter  are  concerned  with  human  rather  than  property 
values.  In  other  words,  those  city  activities  showing  the  greatest 
relative  efficiency  are  those  illustrating  the  guarantee  to  property 
rights.  Those  enjoying  the  least  popularity,  and  therefore  having 
the  smallest  actual  force,  are  the  social  and  economic  activities 
that  are  intended  to  improve  the  opportunities  for  sane  human  life, 
for  health,  and  for  pleasure.  We  thus  have  two  sets  of  reformers: 
one,  anxious  to  bolster  up  the  political  framework  in  order  fur- 
ther to  guarantee  the  political  liberty  of  the  voter;  the  other, 
with  a  viewpoint  that  stresses  human  life  and  rights,  aiming  at 
greater  efficiency  in  some  one  department  of  government  that  will 
most  quickly  become  a  medium  for  its  particular  propaganda. 
It  is  not  that  either  set  is  inherently  wrong.  We  need  increased 
efficiency  in  every  city  department.  We  also  need  purity  in 
political  activity.  The  real  obstacle  to  the  attainment  of  satis- 
factory results  is  the  lack  of  proportion  in  our  viewpoint,  the  over- 
emphasizing of  one  particular  phase,  the  enthusiasm  anent  a 
particular  panacea,  that  detracts  from  the  importance  of  the 
whole  problem  of  urban  life  and  that  wastes  our  energies  over  a 

6 


THE   VIEWPOINT 

fractional  part  of  the  entire  adjustment.  Obviously,  complete 
readjustment  is  a  matter  of  time.  But  this  fact  does  not  lessen 
the  value  of  proportion  and  completeness  in  our  plans.  The 
vital  question  is:  Shall  we  look  upon  city  life,  its  activities,  its 
opportunities,  its  benefits,  and  its  defects,  in  a  large  and  compre- 
hensive way,  or  shall  we  try  to  make  our  adjustments  singly,  and 
at  a  time  apparently  best  suited  for  a  temporary  repair?  The  logical 
answer  is:  No  efficient  readjustment  of  city  life  can  be  made  ef- 
fective and  permanent  until  we  consider  the  problem  of  city  life 
as  one  of  complex  and  yet  integral  evolution.  Our  apparently 
separate  little  problems  are  really  interlaced  and  related.  The 
study  of  one  inevitably  leads  to  the  discussion  of  all.  We  must 
have  a  new  attitude  toward  physical  and  social  cause  and  effect. 
The  rapid  growth  in  the  natural  sciences  has  already  proved  the 
complexity  of  causes  and  results.  In  other  words,  the  monistic 
viewpoint  of  life  must  change  to  a  pluralistic  one.  The  old  method 
of  isolating  an  individual  from  his  environment  in  order  to  study 
him  under  our  social  microscope  is  ridiculous,  because  misleading 
and  ineffectual.  As  we  lose  sight  of  the  motivating  forces  that 
make  him  worthy  of  study,  we  fail  properly  to  visualize  him  as  he 
really  is.  And,  just  as  all  the  activities  of  city  life  have  some 
tangible  connection  with  one  another,  and  just  as  the  obvious 
maladjustments  in  city  life  are  consequences  of  a  combination  of 
causes,  just  so  must  any  efficient  plan  of  reform  or  readjustment 
be  based  on  a  comprehensive  and  human  survey  of  the  whole 
field  in  order  scientifically  to  connect  conditions  with  social  results. 
We  have  to  get  a  fresh  line  of  vision  in  order  to  evolve  a  new  line  of 
action.  Definite  changes  come  easily  and  quickly  when  the  need 
is  keenly  and  universally  felt.  And  needs  are  most  keenly  and 
permanently  felt  when  they  are  not  only  universal,  but  human. 


II.  NATURE  AND  SCOPE  OF  CITY  PROBLEMS 

UP  TO  within  a  few  years  ago  American  city  problems  were 
considered  to  be  the  results  of  defective  political  ma- 
chinery. For  the  first  eighty  years  of  our  national  life 
the  average  city  was  the  plaything  of  the  local  politician.  Na- 
tional problems  were  vital  and  engrossing,  and  little  attention  was 
given  to  the  social  consequences  of  dense  aggregations  of  popula- 
tion or  the  frictions  that  result  from  fire  hazards,  tenement  life, 
and  the  various  changes  in  domestic  regimes  to  which  the  urban 
dweller  has  to  become  accustomed.  Migration  from  country  to 
city  had  been  relatively  small,  and  the  immigrant  colonies  in  the 
latter  had  caused  little  uneasiness  or  inconvenience.  Outside 
of  one  or  two  activities,  such  as  police  and  fire  protection, — and 
these  directly  connected  with  property  rights, — governmental 
energy  was  expended  along  political  and  negative  lines,  the 
average  middle-  and  upper-class  citizen  asking  nothing  better 
than  to  be  able  to  carry  on  his  business  with  adequate  protection, 
and  to  enjoy  his  exclusive  pleasures  in  his  own  social  set.  But 
we  are  now  waking  up  to  the  realization  of  other  needs  and  lines 
of  action.  The  organized  charity  movement  has  given  an  impetus 
to  a  new  viewpoint  that  has  popularized  many  of  the  agencies 
hitherto  deemed  entirely  within  the  province  of  the  individual 
philanthropist  and  the  church.  Our  reflective  library  philosopher 
is  no  longer  the  only  "  prophet  crying  in  the  wilderness."  Isolated 
philanthropy  is  being  replaced  by  co-operative  social  conservation. 
City  problems  are  not  increasing  in  numbers  so  fast  as  they  are 
being  newly  discovered  and  better  recognized.  We  are  over- 
hauling, for  the  first  time,  our  stock  of  economic  and  social  re- 
lationships. We  are  beginning  to  see  that  the  important  thing  is 
not  so  much  to  make  our  business  our  life,  but  to  make  a  business 
of  our  life. 

City  living  becomes  increasingly  complex  and  difficult  as  popula- 
tion grows  and  congests.     Home  life  has  suffered  severe  modifica- 

8 


NATURE   AND    SCOPE   OF   CITY    PROBLEMS 

tion  through  the  various  economic  and  industrial  changes  that, 
in  turn,  make  necessary  new  feelings  and  adaptations.  New  social 
pressures  exist,  not  from  lack  of  material  resources,  but  because 
we  have  not  as  yet  properly  related  our  work  and  its  results. 
Famine,  plague,  and  other  natural  catastrophes,  as  obstacles  to 
economic  and  social  progress,  have  been  eliminated.  But  their 
place  has  been  taken  by  overwork,  underpay,  and  malnutrition. 
These  new  pressures  now  bear  most  hardly  on  the  margin  of  life, 
so  to  speak — on  that  part  of  the  day  that  should  be  the  recreative 
or  social  end.  And  increasing  complexity  of  social  relationships 
inevitably  produces  new  frictions,  which,  though  often  temporary, 
are  none  the  less  real  and  potent  at  the  time.  For  example,  a 
rise  or  fall  in  the  standard  of  living  will  necessarily  test  the  differ- 
ence in  adaptability  among  the  various  social  sets  or  groups. 
And  these  differences,  to  a  great  extent,  measure  the  discomfort 
and  misery  of  the  new  social  frictions  involved.  Since  we  change 
our  habits  of  life  and  viewpoints  in  matters  of  detail  every  year, 
we  must  expect  the  process  of  adaptation  to  follow,  even  though 
the  process  often  brings  unhappiness,  if  not  actual  discomfort 
and  pain.  Every  new  social  need  in  the  community  creates  a  new 
part  in  our  social  mosaic  that  must  be  fitted  in  with  nicety  into 
the  old  framework. 

If  the  new  viewpoint  be  contrasted  with  the  old,  we  are  tending 
increasingly  to  emphasize  that  part  of  life  that  does  not  represent 
the  working  period.  The  city  problems  of  to-day  are  not  so  much 
the  problems  of  the  workshop  as  those  of  the  street  and  home;  not 
the  problems  of  cure,  but  of  prevention;  not  of  the  regulation  of 
existing  conditions  so  much  as  the  elimination  of  those  conditions 
that  definitely  create  city  maladjustments.  Their  nature  is  social 
and  ethical,  rather  than  political  or  legal.  To  premise  this  con- 
cept, one  must  look  upon  his  city  as  a  definite  area  with  distinctive 
and  unique  social  pressures  and  outlets  of  energy,  not  merely  as  a 
given  political  boundary  including  a  highly  aggregated  mass  of 
impersonal  human  beings.  A  safe  method  of  assay,  in  this  con- 
nection, is  to  contrast  urban  with  rural  life  in  order  to  find  those 
relationships  and  activities  that  are  present  in  the  former  and 
absent  in  the  latter.  For  instance,  slum  life,  adulteration  of  food, 
water,  and  air,  vice,  and  periodic  unemployment  are  specifically 

9 


CITY   VALUES 

concerned  with  dense  and  dynamic  social  relationships,  and  present 
phases  of  adaptability  to  changes  in  city  growth  and  habits.  A 
sudden  expansion  in  urban  area  or  the  introduction  of  a  new 
industry  will  effect  in  a  very  short  time  a  definite  change  in  mode 
of  life,  hours  of  work,  and  methods  of  transportation.  When  new 
adaptations  are  forced  upon  even  a  fraction  of  a  community,  new 
problems  arise.  Crime  and  dirt  do  not  arbitrarily  gravitate  to 
any  particular  district,  except  in  the  case  of  degree.  Thus  it 
must  be  recognized  that  what  seem  like  separate  problems  overlap 
every  other  one.  Each  may  have  its  separate  province,  since 
each  results  from  some  well-defined  phase  of  our  social  environ- 
ment. But  all  are  measured  in  extent  by  the  city  limits  itself. 
And  in  the  end  all  need  the  same  general  kind  of  treatment,  the 
same  careful  analysis,  the  same  catholic  and  humane  consideration. 


10 


III.  CITY  PROBLEMS— AN  ANALYSIS 

THE  making  of  a  satisfactory  list  of  city  problems  for  pur- 
poses of  analysis  is  less  difficult  if  a  start  is  made  from  the 
basis  of  those  unique  urban  frictions  and  reactions  that 
are  social  in  their  nature.  It  is  assumed  that  criticism  will  be 
directed  toward  some  one  point  of  the  classification,  since  each  of 
us  has  some  particular  viewpoint  that  naturally  emphasizes  one 
factor  more  than  the  others.  But  a  starting-point  must  be  fixed 
and  a  classification  made,  even  though  these  are  susceptible  to 
detailed  changes  as  the  discussion  proceeds. 

In  general,  the  vital  city  problems  are  as  follows: 
i.  Aggregation  of  population. 

2.  Health. 

3.  Protection. 

4.  Transportation. 

5.  Living  conditions. 

6.  Vice. 

7.  Crime. 

8.  Recreation. 

9.  Relief. 

10.  Industrial  congestion. 

1 1 .  Limit  of  social  utility  in  size. 

Each  of  these  presents  interesting  aspects  of  densely  packed 
human  existence,  and  each  assumes  some  unique  urban  pressures 
or  frictions  that  act  as  obstacles  to  complete  social  happiness.  All 
are  related,  and  all  affect  the  city  as  a  whole. 

(a)  Aggregation  of  Population 
Migration  from  country  to  city  began  with  the  Industrial  Revo- 
lution. The  rise  of  urban  life  in  the  United  States  is  coincident 
with  the  introduction  of  factory  methods  and  the  obvious  ad- 
vantages of  close  proximity  to  markets.  Especially  noteworthy  is 
the  growth  in  city  population  from  1890  to  19 12.     Urban  popula- 


CITY   VALUES 

tion  increased  from  about  36  per  cent  of  the  total  population  to 
over  46  per  cent  in  this  period.  At  the  same  time  the  rural  dis- 
tricts suffered  a  decrease  of  from  approximately  64  per  cent  to 
54  per  cent  of  the  total  population  of  the  country.1  While  the 
total  population  has  increased  about  2 1  per  cent  in  the  decade  from 
1900  to  1 9 10,  the  growth  of  cities  was  roughly  39  per  cent.  And 
while  the  New  England  section  shows  a  rate  of  increase  of  only 
slightly  over  21  per  cent  for  city  growth,  there  is  a  rise  of  101  per 
cent  in  the  Pacific  division  for  city  expansion.  And  this  urban 
increase  has  not  taken  place  only  in  the  larger  metropolis.  In 
every  State  and  territory  there  was  a  marked  city  expansion,  and 
in  seven  States  the  rural  population  actually  showed  a  decrease. 
Every  State  but  two  exhibited  a  more  rapid  urban  growth  than 
rural.  Practically  every  city  in  this  country  feels  the  effect  in 
varying  degree. 

Considering  aggregation  as  a  city  problem,  it  is  not  to  be  assumed 
that  all  its  effects  are  necessarily  injurious.  Larger  opportunities 
for  pleasure  and  education  are  among  the  most  obvious  advantages 
of  city  living.  But  that  certain  effects  are  wholesome  to  the  ma- 
jority does  not  vitiate  the  argument  that  dense  aggregation  is  a 
cause  of  well-defined  unfortunate  social  results.  A  strict  stand- 
ardization in  mode  of  life  and  thought  is  forced  upon  the  individual 
and  family  by  the  group.  Individualism  gives  place  to  a  weak 
and  conventionally  imitative  morality.  Neighborliness  is  prac- 
tically absent  from  the  city — a  trait  so  characteristic  of  the  rural 
community.  In  its  place  we  find  a  hedonistic  attitude  of  mind 
and  a  tendency  to  social  demarcation  that  is  best  illustrated  by 
club  life  and  the  various  social  "sets."  Political  issues  are  mixed 
and  vague,  because  the  spirit  of  strict,  well-informed  partizanship 
is  lost.  Thus  an  advantage  is  gained  by  the  politician  in  the  veiling 
of  actual  candidates  for  city  offices  as  well  as  the  real  questions 
of  vital  moment  to  the  voter,  with  the  result  that  the  latter  is 
placed  in  the  class  of  the  uninformed  and  indifferent.  The  greater 
the  mass  of  voters,  the  more  possible  it  becomes  to  mix  issues, 
to  keep  the  single  voter  uninformed,  to  exploit  one  group  at  the 
expense  of  another.    And  this  political  exploitation  has  flourished 

1  See  special  preliminary  Report  of  Bureau  of  Census  on  Urban  and  Rural 
Population  in  the  United  States,  August  12,  191 1. 

12 


CITY    PROBLEMS — AN   ANALYSIS 

best  in  our  American  cities,  since  here  exist  the  unusual  oppor- 
tunities for  the  politician  who  seeks  to  take  advantage  of  the 
difference  in  relationships  due  to  large  and  dense  aggregations. 
Our  home  life,  too,  is  modified  by  a  score  of  counteracting  agencies. 
Dirt,  noise,  disease,  and  crime  all  tend  to  undermine  the  homo- 
geneity of  the  home.  Domestic  arrangements  must  be  radically 
changed  to  fit  the  difference  in  working  hours  and  conditions,  and 
marketing  is  done  at  long  distance.  Again,  dense  aggregation 
inevitably  complicates  the  processes  of  communication.  Con- 
gestion of  traffic,  limits  of  usable  area,  etc.,  are  all  factors.  To 
sum  up,  all  these  point  to  a  new  series  of  social  pressures  that  force 
the  individual  into  a  conventional  mold,  that  bring  an  attitude 
of  mind  essentially  different  from  that  of  the  country  dweller, 
and  that  create  a  very  distinctive  city  morality  that  results  in  new 
needs,  new  reactions,  new  standards,  and  new  actions.  The 
greater  the  aggregation,  the  more  crystallized  does  this  city 
morality  become.  The  personal  human  touch  dies  before  the 
impersonality  of  the  ever-changing  crowd.  Social  control  dis- 
places individual  control.  Intensity  of  life,  rather  than  harmony, 
becomes  the  order  of  the  day.  Artificial,  man-made  forces  are 
emphasized  in  contrast  to  natural  ones.  Aggregation  is  not  only 
a  mere  cause  of  this  city  morality:  it  is  the  basic  reason  for  its 
very  existence. 

(b)  Health 
Complexity  in  social  relations  inevitably  results  in  new  pressures 
along  the  lines  of  physical  health.  No  other  separate  city  problem 
is  of  more  importance,  nor  is  there  one  that  needs  more  careful 
treatment.  On  the  other  hand,  none  has  received  less  keen  and 
comprehensive  attention  in  ratio  to  its  importance.  Municipal 
guardianship  of  health  is  still  an  idea  in  swaddling  clothes — in  the 
United  States.  The  individual  has  to  work  out  his  own  sanitary 
salvation  in  all  but  a  few  ways.  Now  the  health  problem  never 
has  been  and  never  can  be  a  problem  for  the  individual.  Its 
very  nature  gives  a  clue  to  the  treatment  that  has  been  so  grudg- 
ingly and  inefficiently  given  in  the  past.  It  is  assumed,  in  com- 
mon and  statute  law,  that  the  individual  has  the  inalienable  right 
and  privilege  of  protecting  himself.    There  has  been  no  well- 

13 


CITY   VALUES 

developed  public  opinion  on  this  matter  until  very  recently;  no 
concerted  action  on  the  part  of  those  working  along  separate  lines, 
for  a  really  healthy  community;  no  conception  of  the  necessity 
for  municipal  guardianship  of  our  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
well-being.1  Investigations  and  records  attract  but  passing  in- 
terest. There  is  no  uniformity  in  city  statistics,  no  co-opera- 
tion between  State  and  city,  no  universal  and  vital  desire  to 
eliminate  the  causes  of  ill  health.  Our  viewpoint  is  static  and 
narrow,  primarily  because  we  are  uninformed.  We  instinctively 
shrink  from  small-pox  contagion,  but  we  do  not  see  the  many  and 
terrible  dangers  of  infection  from  smoky  air,  impure  food,  or 
dirt-laden  ice  and  water.  We  individually  demand  quiet  homes, 
but  collectively  we  allow  street  noises  that  produce  the  neurasthenic 
man  and  woman.  We  condemn  poor  housing  conditions,  and  at 
the  same  time  permit  the  commercial  landlord  to  erect  and  main- 
tain open  vaults  and  privies.  Campaigns  against  the  house-fly 
are  now  popular,  but  as  yet  we  have  taken  practically  no  steps 
toward  the  permanent  elimination  of  fly-breeding  material.  As 
a  rule,  when  a  definite  movement  for  healthy  conditions  has  been 
started,  and  when  it  has  crystallized  into  some  concrete  under- 
taking on  the  part  of  the  city, — such  as  the  construction  of  a  water- 
filter  or  an  incineration  plant  for  garbage, — public  opinion  allows 
the  lobbying  contractor  and  disreputable  politician  to  make  a 
mess  of  it.  The  city  has  not  as  yet  adequately  protected  us 
against  decayed  food  or  the  dirty  handling  of  good  food.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  figure  up  the  cost  in  life,  ill-health,  injury,  and  general 
debility  from  such  causes.  But  the  cost  is  there,  and  we  are  paying 
needlessly  for  it,  every  day  and  every  year.  In  other  words,  we 
spend  millions  upon  our  hospitals  and  sanatoria — the  pound  of 
cure;  we  refuse  to  appropriate  the  same  sum  for  the  elimination 
of  the  causes  of  mortality  and  morbidity — the  ounce  of  prevention. 
Records  of  births  and  deaths  are  carelessly  kept.  The  lack  of 
proper  regulation  of  physicians  and  midwives,  etc.,  is  responsible 
for  a  large  number  of  unrecorded  deaths  and  births.  Most  in- 
vestigations into  housing  conditions  have  been  of  a  private  nature. 

1  The  January,  1912,  issue  of  "The  National  Municipal  Review"  has  an  ex- 
tremely illuminating  article  on  this  subject,  entitled  "  Private  Houses  and  Public 
Health,"  by  John  Ihlder. 

14 


CITY    PROBLEMS — AN    ANALYSIS 

And  while  no  doubt  thorough  and  accurate  enough  in  their  way, 
they  have  been  undertaken  only  as  one  branch  of  a  most  compre- 
hensive social  work.  As  a  result,  the  average  reader  of  such  re- 
ports considers  it  merely  as  a  more  or  less  interesting  description 
of  certain  rather  unpleasant  conditions  that  do  not  affect  him  or 
her  as  a  citizen.  The  usual  municipal  report  on  health  is  generally 
worthless,  because  influenced  by  certain  political  conditions — 
there  is  always  a  large  element  of  "whitewash"  about  the  informa- 
tion. Nor  has  the  average  city  health  bureau  obtained  either  our 
confidence  or  support.  Its  great  failure  is  its  lack  of  system  in 
telling  facts,  coupled  with  the  arrant  cowardice  of  the  pay-roll 
official  who  does  not  want  to  do  anything  that  demands  a  sacri- 
fice of  time,  energy,  or  political  advancement.  Thus,  in  summing 
up  the  problem  of  city  health  it  must  be  emphasized,  first:  we 
are  dealing  with  a  problem  that  has  all  the  earmarks  of  a  purely 
social  set  of  frictions.  Individual  carelessness,  wilfulness,  and 
ignorance  are  seen  to  be  comparatively  negligible.  The  risks 
to  the  citizen  in  the  matter  of  health  are  almost  all  offered  by  the 
city  itself.  The  average  human  being  is  helpless  against  accident, 
infection,  contagion,  and  neurasthenia.  As  long  as  we  consider 
that  the  city  health  problem  includes  only  general  sanitation,  we 
are  only  partially  solving  it.  After  all,  there  is  no  good  reason  why 
city  life  should  not  be  healthy.  The  only  apparent  reason  is  that 
we  have  not  yet  demanded  a  permanently  healthy  city. 


(c)  Transportation 
The  problem  of  transportation  is  one  that  perhaps  most  aptly 
illustrates  the  interrelation  of  all  city  problems,  while  at  the  same 
time  exhibiting  aspects  that  indicate  the  contrast  between  the  old 
and  new  viewpoint.  We  are  only  just  beginning  to  see  the  rela- 
tion between  our  transit  system  and  the  area  of  the  city,  the  style 
and  arrangement  of  houses,  the  distribution  of  population,  and 
the  establishment  and  prosperity  of  our  suburbs.  It  is  apparent 
that  we  are  here  concerned  with  a  vast  business  enterprise:  one 
of  large  and  rapid  profits;  one  needing  but  a  low  standard  of 
managerial  ability;  and  one  that  has  been  left  for  the  past  decades 
to  be  the  "football"  of  the  local  politician  and  old-line  business 

*5 


CITY   VALUES 

man.1  Our  viewpoint  has  come  about  through  the  lack  of  social 
appreciation  of  a  municipal  business  that  has  become  an  economic 
and  social  necessity.  Distribution  of  population, — in  order  to 
eliminate  living  congestion, — a  better  type  of  city-dwelling  archi- 
tecture, efficient  food  distribution  at  lower  cost,  and  the  building 
up  of  suburbs  are  all  practical  results  of  adequate  and  constantly 
expanding  transportation  facilities.  Rents  then  become  possible 
of  a  desirable  equalization,  and  recreation  and  education  can 
be  quickly  universalized.  The  questions  of  franchise  terms  or 
methods  of  equipment  are  those  of  detailed  ways  of  doing  desirable 
things,  not  a  matter  of  initial  policy.  City  transportation  will 
never  be  adequate  when  the  relation  between  it  and  other  social 
problems  is  not  keenly  and  universally  appreciated,  and  when  the 
city  has  no  consistent,  as  well  as  insistent,  community  concern 
in  the  management  or  regulation  of  this  important  function  in 
municipal  life.  The  transit  system  of  any  city  is  "  the  circulatory 
system"  of  the  community.  It  corresponds  to  the  veins  and 
arteries  of  the  human  body.  If  adequate  in  capacity  and  elastic 
in  its  accommodations  to  the  varying  demands  of  the  day,  season, 
or  generation,  the  community  enjoys  a  comfortable  and  natural 
contact  with  its  desires  and  opportunities.  When  transportation 
is  slow,  uncertain,  clumsy,  and  exclusive,  the  citizen  is  deprived 
of  the  ability  to  carry  on  his  business  and  life  to  the  limit  of  their 
valuable  and  pleasurable  possibilities.  Tenements  would  cease 
to  exist  if  transportation  was  provided  that  fitted  both  the  needs 
and  pocketbooks  of  tenement  dwellers.  Congestion  dissolves 
naturally  when  transit  systems  are  designed  to  give  every  city 
dweller  the  chance  to  live  where  he  pleases.  Vice,  crime,  ill 
health,  and  poverty  diminish  rapidly  under  conditions  that  allow 
freer  movement  of  individuals,  greater  choice  in  the  matter  of 
home-building,  and  larger  opportunities  of  enjoying  recreation 
and  comfortable  surroundings.  At  present  our  city  circulation 
is  stagnant.  And  thus  we  suffer  from  social  ailments  that  directly 
result  from  imperfect  and  dangerous  transfusion  of  community 
blood. 

1  The  discussion  of  Public  Ownership  and  Operation  of  transportation  facilities 
is  out  of  place  here,  since  not  only  is  the  idea  still  in  the  experimental  stage  in  the 
United  States,  but  also  since,  even  under  such  a  plan,  our  analysis  of  the  real 
problem  would  be  the  same. 

16 


CITY    PROBLEMS — AN    ANALYSIS 

(d)  Limit  of  Social  Utility  in  Si%e 
The  average  citizen — certainly  the  average  business  man — 
assumes  that  there  is  a  virtue  in  mere  size.  The  larger  the  city, 
the  greater  the  industrial  and  social  opportunities.  This  is  ap- 
parently so  axiomatic  that  to  suggest  a  limit  to  the  size  of  our 
urban  communities  is  to  invite  instant  credulity,  if  not  actual 
antagonism.  But  let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  a  few  pertinent 
facts  that  may  suggest  a  new  line  of  reasoning  upon  city  valuation. 
A  review  of  the  last  census  figures  shows  that  the  larger  American 
cities  have  not  increased  in  the  same  proportion  with  the  smaller 
urban  area.1  It  is  the  small  city  in  the  United  States  to-day  that 
attracts  our  country  brothers  and  sisters.  The  rapid  advance  of 
interurban  electric  service,  the  increase  of  rural  free  delivery,  the 
popularity  of  the  mail-order  house,  and  the  diffusion  of  popular 
literature — all  are  creating  a  feeling  of  independence  in  the  smaller 
centers  that  did  not  exist  thirty  years  ago.  The  city  of  10,000 
inhabitants  has  rapidly  become  self-sufficing,  as  well  as  socially 
valuable.  The  Associated  Press  has  made  possible  the  simul- 
taneous publication  of  news  that  destroys  in  large  measure  the 
influence  of  the  large  metropolis.  Popular  advanced  education, 
through  the  media  of  University  Extension  lectures,  Chautauqua 
circuits,  and  state  universities,  has  universalized  knowledge  of  all 
kinds,  and  makes  it  unnecessary  for  one  to  leave  one's  own  state, 
or  even  district,  in  order  to  acquire  culture  or  to  make  use  of 
business  opportunities.  The  theatrical  stock  company  and  "one- 
night-stand  routes"  give  even  the  smallest  city  the  enjoyment  of 
contemporary  drama.2  In  a  hundred  ways  the  small  city  is 
gaining  opportunities  for  prosperity  and  social  happiness  that  were 
formerly  monopolized  by  New  York,  Chicago,  Boston,  and  Phila- 
delphia. The  metropolis  is  no  longer  the  mecca,  either  industrially 
or  socially.  On  the  other  hand,  we  can  plainly  find  indications  of 
"top-heaviness"  in  some  of  our  larger  centers:  top-heaviness  of 
both  an  industrial  and  population  nature.  It  is  a  serious  question, 
in  many  places,  as  to  the  best  outlet  for  too  densely  packed  a 

1  See  Report  of  Bureau  of  Census  on  Urban  and  Rural  Population  in  the  United 
States,  August  12,  191 1. 

2  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  recent  rise  of  the  municipal  theater  and  the  pageant 
has  come  about  almost  exclusively  in  the  city  of  moderate  size. 

■7 


CITY   VALUES 

population.  Apparently,  the  limit  of  physical  resources  in  actual 
area  has  been  reached.  We  have,  therefore,  taken  to  building  up 
in  the  air,  both  in  the  way  of  office  buildings  and  houses.  In  other 
cases  industrial  conditions  evidence  a  decline  in  productivity  due 
to  congestion  of  plants  and  limits  in  engineering  construction.  We 
are  reaching  the  limit  of  building  height  and  weight.1  A  decreasing 
amount  of  necessary  light  and  air  is  the  natural  result  of  sky- 
scrapers and  closely  packed  industrial  districts.  Our  best  transit 
systems  are  taxed  to  the  utmost  to  supply  the  normal  demand  for 
urban  communication.  Financial  problems  and  political  compli- 
cations are  increasingly  common,  due  to  the  growth  in  complexity 
of  governmental  machinery  that  is  made  necessary  for  the  carrying 
on  of  multifarious  municipal  duties.  Domestic  problems  become 
more  acute,  and  family  maladjustments  affect  larger  groups. 
Intense  specialization  of  city  functioning  results  in  carrying  the 
official  farther  from  popular  control.  In  short,  there  is  a  definite 
limit  to  city  size — a  limit  set  by  economic  and  social  convenience. 
When  urban  assimilation  becomes  a  labored  function,  when  we 
become  obstacles  to  our  own  normal  desires  and  needs,  we  reach 
the  limit  of  social  utility  in  size. 


The  other  problems  in  our  classification  may  all  be  analyzed 
in  the  same  way.  A  study  of  one  ineviflably  leads  to  a  discussion 
of  the  rest.  Ordinarily,  we  think  of  "protection"  as  having  to  do 
primarily  with  the  obvious  duties  of  the  policeman — a  question 
largely  of  the  guarantee  of  property  rights.  But  city  protection 
should  cover  every  phase  of  life  where  the  citizen  is  individually 
helpless.  Protection  against  accident  in  the  home  and  on  the 
street  is  only  one  side:  the  guarantee  of  honest  measures  and  good 
food  is  another.  The  city  presents  risks  in  grade-crossings,  in- 
ferior transit  equipment,  and  fire  hazards  against  which  the  indi- 
vidual is  helpless.  City  protection  is  primarily  a  human  problem. 
In  like  manner  the  problems  of  vice,  crime,  recreation,  and  relief, 
etc.,  all  offer  aspects  unique  to  city  environment.  The  roots  of 
all  go  down  far  below  the  soil  of  our  usual  analysis  and  treatment. 

1  Several  of  the  larger  cities  have  already  passed  ordinances  limiting  the  height 
of  buildings. 

18 


CITY    PROBLEMS — AN    ANALYSIS 

We  have  hitherto  only  scratched  the  surface.  Vice  has  ordinarily 
been  considered  a  "woman"  problem,  and  one  that  is  assumed  to 
be  inherent  to  civilized  life.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  "man" 
problem — a  problem  of  misuse  of  energy  and  leisure;  a  problem 
of  lack  of  social  opportunity  for  a  clean  life;  and  a  problem  that  is 
remedial — if  only  we  will  get  down  to  the  real  causes  and  make  up 
our  minds  to  eliminate  them.  Crime  and  recreation  are  two  sides 
of  the  same  shield.  Relief  represents  the  great  waste  of  human 
energy,  emotion,  and  money.  It  is  the  shining  example  of  our 
lack  of  human  conservation.  We  spend  millions  for  the  hetero- 
geneous support  of  those  derelicts  that  we  create  through  our 
indifference,  carelessness,  or  false  morality.  The  study  of  each 
problem  proves  the  same  point — a  point  incident  to  all :  we  have 
not  yet  gone  below  the  surface  deep  enough  to  discover  the  primary 
causes  of  our  problems.  We  fail  to  visualize  the  human  element 
and  the  importance  of  happy  and  efficient  environment.  Our 
heads  are  still  in  the  vague  and  half-learned  clouds  of  "  heredity." 
We  imagine  that  we  will  always  have  the  poor  with  us,  because  they 
are,  by  some  divine  right,  born  to  that  estate.  Our  time  has  been 
taken  up  with  business  matters,  such  as  franchises,  profits,  and 
scientific  management,  and  we  have  convinced  ourselves  that  it 
is  practically  waste  of  time  for  the  actual  solving  of  mere  human 
problems.  Palliatives,  yes;  but  a  permanent  solution — it  is  too 
much  trouble.  We  have  lacked  a  community  concern  in  the  great 
ailments  of  urban  existence.  Our  pound  of  cure  has  always  been 
necessary,  because  we  are  too  busy  to  apply  seriously  the  ounce  of 
prevention. 


*9 


IV.    CITY  MALADJUSTMENTS 

THE  urban  problems  just  discussed  naturally  give  us  ma- 
terial for  thought  regarding  the  maladjustments  in  city 
life.  And  it  is  in  the  keen  and  serious  analysis  of  these 
maladjustments  that  we  crystallize  the  new  viewpoint  toward  city 
efficiency.  Maladjustment  is  a  very  definite  status  of  social  and 
economic  life  that  results  in  community  costs,  and  that  is  due  to 
remedial  causes.  The  remedy  for  any  maladjustment  is,  in  all  cases, 
co-operative,  community  action,  or,  in  other  words,  social  action. 
Maladjustment  is  merely  a  temporary  status,  the  term£>f  its  ex- 
istence dependent  on  the  complexion  of  public  opinion  at  any  given 
time.  Heredity,  while  not  falling  by  the  wayside,  is  receiving  less 
attention — as  a  hypothesis  of  cause  and  effect — in  proportion  to 
environment.  In  environment  we  see  conditions  that  we  ourselves 
make  to  a  large  extent.  It  is  a  remediable  and  changeable  status, 
so  to  speak,  of  social  and  economic  life,  the  results  of  which  we  can 
measure  with  greater  accuracy  every  year.  To  eliminate  a  mal- 
adjustment, therefore,  means  a  new  viewpoint  toward  environ- 
ment, a  more  forceful  public  opinion  as  to  its  importance,  and  a 
new  valuation  of  economic  and  social  processes  carefully  tabulated. 
A  glance  at  the  most  obvious  of  the  various  city  maladjustments 
will  reveal  certain  specific  and  interesting  aspects.  First,  a 
relation  between  them  all  in  regard  to  the  fundamental  causes; 
second,  social  costs  resulting  from  any  one  can  be  traced  in  any 
other.  Each  very  definitely  results  in  the  waste  of  social  energy, 
not  only  in  the  case  of  the  individual,  but  as  well  of  the  family  and 
the  community  at  large.  In  order  to  visualize  social  costs,  however, 
it  is  necessary  to  specify  certain  maladjustments  that  are  emphatic. 
They  are  as  follows : 

1.  Congestion. 

2.  Disease. 

3.  Vice. 

4.  Break-up  in  home  life. 

5.  Exclusion  in  recreation. 

6.  High  rents. 

20 


CITY   MALADJUSTMENTS 

It  is  to  be  emphasized,  in  the  analysis  of  the  above,  that  three 
tests  shall  always  be  applied.  First:  that  maladjustments  are 
the  result  of  very  definite  economic  and  social  causes;  second: 
that  social  costs  are  inevitable;  and  third:  that  maladjustments 
are  remediable  by  community  co-operation.  No  economic  analy- 
sis is  effective  with  the  old  moral  or  political  viewpoint.  Human 
rights  and  values  must  at  all  times  be  stressed.  Our  maladjust- 
ments will  never  be  eradicated  until  society  turns  from  its  pres- 
ent faith  in  machinery  to  the  practical  efficiency  of  keen,  inde- 
fatigable, and  universal  social  co-operation. 

Taking  up  briefly  the  maladjustments  referred  to,  let  us  apply 
the  tests  in  order  to  prove  their  validity.  First,  as  to  causes  being 
social  and  economic,  rather  than  hereditary  and  natural.  The 
causes  of  congestion  and  disease  are  now  known  intimately.  He 
who  runs  may  read,  in  volumes  upon  volumes  of  investigations  and 
reports,  the  truthfulness  of  which  is  not  discredited.  In  all  cases 
it  is  seen  that  both  maladjustments  are  direct  results  of  certain 
conditions  that  we  allow  or  create — conditions  that  exist  because 
of  the  way  we  live  or  do  business.  Of  late  years  the  vice  question 
has  received  greater  attention  from  the  hands  of  experts,  and 
through  the  information  gleaned  by  several  conscientious  com- 
missions, we  know  the  reasons  for  this  particular  phase  of  our 
social  life.1  Again,  the  first  test  is  valid:  the  causes  are  either 
industrial  or  social.  As  to  the  break-up  in  home  life,  the  average 
citizen  is  not  on  such  sure  ground.  But  a  review  of  the  usual 
conditions  in  our  cities  with  regard  to  living  accommodations  and 
those  agencies  that  counteract  home  influences  gives  a  real  clue 
to  the  fundamental  causes.  Night  work,  saloons,  club  life,  noise, 
dirt,  and  continual  sickness  and  poverty — all  play  their  part. 
Exclusion  in  recreation  can  be  traced  directly  to  differences  in 
social  sets,  lack  of  neighborliness,  and  lack  of  community  interest 
in  normal  city  functioning.  High  rents  are  the  result  of  improper 
regulation  of  land  holding  and  transfer,  as  well  as  of  inadequate 
communication  and  distribution  of  food-products  and  goods. 
In  all  these  maladjustments  there  can  be  seen  the  outcome  of 
careless  municipal  guardianship  and  community  indifference  to 
social  and  economic  waste.  Too  much  time  spent  on  reforming 
1  See  Reports  of  Chicago  and  Minneapolis  Vice  Commissions. 
21 


CITY   VALUES 

the  political  machine  and  too  little  spent  on  renovating  the  physical 
and  economic  bases  of  city  environment  is  responsible,  at  least 
for  their  continued  existence. 

The  costs  are  also  patent  if  our  eyes  are  but  open  in  the  right 
directions.  Exploitation  is  a  term  covering  a  multitude  of  social 
sins,  among  which  we  find  a  high  mortality  rate,  decreased  vi- 
tality, and  a  decided  lowering  of  moral  tone.  Class  distinctions 
are  intensified,  and  unequal  economic  opportunity  accentuated. 
The  very  rich  and  the  very  poor  live  side  by  side  in  the  same  physi- 
cal environment,  though  in  reality  separated  by  a  great  social  gulf. 
Stunted  minds  and  bodies  result  from  poor  living  conditions  and 
disease.  Our  human  derelicts  are  products  of  both  disease  and 
vice.  While  our  juvenile  delinquency  and  wasteful  methods  of 
relief  hark  back  to  the  break-up  in  home  life.  The  costs  in  our 
maladjustments  are  more  than  mere  industrial  costs;  more  than 
the  lowering  of  manual  and  mental  efficiency  for  work.  They 
represent  real  obstacles  to  racial  progress  and  urban  development. 
City  maladjustments  of  to-day  are  the  conditions  that  represent 
the  real  sources  of  danger  to  American  democracy. 

We  have  for  many  years  been  striving  to  eliminate  "political 
diseases."  Some  think  we  have  utterly  failed  to  effect  any  kind  of 
a  cure.  Others  aver  that  we  are  making  rapid  progress.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  we  have  dismally  failed  to  see  the  cancerous  growth 
of  a  disease-breeding  and  inexcusable  social  environment  that  re- 
sults in  a  ridiculous  waste  of  human  life  and  energy.  The  Ameri- 
can business  man  refuses  to  allow  industrial  waste  in  his  own  plant, 
and  eradicates  the  tendency  toward  it  by  adopting  scientific 
methods  of  management  and  by  utilizing  the  by-products  of  the 
industry.  But  society,  especially  in  our  cities,  allows  waste  in 
unguarded  machinery,  maimed  and  diseased  workers,  and  a  poor 
quality  of  product.  City  maladjustments  represent  the  adultera- 
tion of  the  human  product  that  society  is  forced  to  accept.  With 
maladjustments  in  existence,  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  equal 
opportunity  for  all.  "The  City  Beautiful"  is  a  paradox,  with 
congestion  and  disease  still  at  hand.  "The  City  Efficient"  is 
only  a  dream,  with  high  rents  and  vice.  In  short,  city  maladjust- 
ments are  the  diseases  that  must  be  diagnosed  by  the  economist, 
in  the  same  way  that  tuberculosis  is  diagnosed  by  the  physician. 

22 


CITY   MALADJUSTMENTS 

And  the  removal  of  causes  making  for  social  costs  must  follow  the 
same  line  as  in  the  elimination  of  yellow  fever — by  the  destruction 
of  the  material  that  allows  for  breeding.  "The  City  Efficient" 
has  no  maladjustments,  economic  and  political.  With  a  keen  and 
wholesome  [community  concern  that  guarantees  efficient  action 
when  the  facts  are  known,  political  maladjustments  disappear 
into  thin  air:  those  of  an  economic  and  social  nature  gradually 
lose  their  force,  and  in  a  short  time  cease  to  exist  as  unwholesome 
features  of  city  life. 


23 


V.    CITY  BUILDING 

THE  history  of  urban  civilization  has  seen  several  epochs 
in  which  city  values  were  computed  in  different  terms. 
City  environment  has  always  been  the  direct  result  of 
the  reactions  springing  from  a  particular  epoch.  The  particular 
significance  of  the  present  one  may  be  termed  "  the  awakening  of 
the  city  consciousness  to  the  social  and  economic  conditions  that 
make  city  life  one  of  social  efficiency."  Though  we  are  still 
engaged  in  shortening  the  ballot  and  trying  to  tinker  with  our 
municipal  machinery  so  that  it  will  work  more  smoothly,  yet  a 
keener  emphasis  is  beginning  to  be  manifested  in  our  attitude  to- 
ward social  environment,  and  a  larger  interest  is  being  taken  in  the 
citizen  as  a  "city  dweller."  We  need,  therefore,  a  brand  new  out- 
look upon  city  life  for  the  creation  of  a  comprehensive  program  for 
the  permanent  solution  of  city  problems.  In  other  words,  we 
must  "re-valuate"  our  city  existence;  we  must  decide  what  is 
necessary  to  our  pleasure  and  welfare;  and  we  must  be  ready  to 
discard  without  qualms  any  and  all  conditions  that  produce  pain 
and  misery.  And  not  only  is  it  essential  thoroughly  to  prick 
the  public  consciousness,  but  to  goad  it  along  normal,  racial,  and 
dynamic  lines.  A  dynamic  city  heredity  is  a  necessary  asset. 
Progress  must  be  built  on  the  idea  of  future  social  insurance  as 
well  as  temporary  relief.  Many  of  our  constitutional  traditions 
will  have  to  undergo  modification,  if  not  absolute  dissolution. 
A  score  of  our  habitual  points  of  view  and  conventions  will  neces- 
sarily give  way  before  a  more  social  attitude. 

"City  building"  means  more  than  "the  city  beautiful"  or  "the 
clean  city."  It  is  a  concept  that  allows  for  the  widest  latitude  in 
opinions  and  methods.  In  the  past  methods  have  largely  been 
tested  from  the  standpoint  of  monetary  costs.  And  monetary 
costs  are  naturally  the  most  important  when  the  political  attitude 
toward  the  city  is  paramount.  Discard  the  political  element, 
and  monetary  costs  become  less  emphatic.     Social  and  economic 

24 


CITY    BUILDING 

costs  are  matters  of  more  vital  interest,  and  the  question  of  method 
gives  way,  as  a  slogan,  to  that  of  efficient  and  quick  results. 
"City  building"  may  thus  be  compared  to  a  business-like  com- 
putation of  city  possibilities  for  the  most  efficient  type  of  city 
dweller,  and  for  the  ultimate  standardization  of  a  dynamic  racial 
type. 

Since  our  comprehensive  program  for  city  building  is  of  interest 
to  all  of  the  different  groups  within  urban  limits,  it  would  be  well 
to  divide  the  plan  into  several  parts  for  purposes  of  social  con- 
venience in  discussion.  The  following  list,  though  not  given  in 
order  of  importance,  will  suffice  to  show  the  various  aspects  of 
city  life  that  demand  our  immediate  attention, 
i .  City  dwelling. 

2.  City  health. 

3.  City  communication. 

4.  City  recreation. 

5.  City  industries. 

6.  City  architecture. 

To  those  who  find  this  nomenclature  novel,  a  word  of  explanation 
may  be  given  here.  City  communication  is  definitely  concerned 
with  the  physical  basis  of  city  life:  its  avenues  of  transfer  and 
means  of  distribution — or,  in  other  words,  its  streets,  waterways, 
etc.  City  dwelling  and  city  industries  are  concerned  with  "the 
city  superstructure":  the  economic  and  social  basis  of  shelter, 
home  life,  and  labor.  City  health  and  city  recreation  have  to  do 
with  the  physical  and  mental  uplift  of  racial  standards:  they  pro- 
duce a  distinct  city  morality.  City  architecture  is  related  to  all 
the  others,  directly  and  vitally.  The  city  architect  is  more  than  a 
designer  of  houses  and  factories.  His  work  covers  landscape  gar- 
dening, improvement  of  waste  places,  the  renovation  of  the  worn- 
out,  and  the  conserving  of  all  sorts  and  kinds  of  city  material. 
He  is  as  much  interested  in  streets  and  river  banks  as  in  gardens 
and  libraries.  And  so  we  find  our  various  parts  are  not  disjointed 
fragments,  but  rather  contiguous  and  overlapping  pieces  of  a 
finely  conceived  mosaic  of  social  and  economic  progress. 

What,  then,  shall  be  our  policy  for  the  new  city — "the  city 
efficient"?  Primarily,  we  want  and  must  have  adequate  and 
comfortable  living  accommodations  for  every  family  and  every 

25 


CITY   VALUES 

human  being  within  the  limits  of  the  city.  And  to  this  end  we 
should  have,  first:  A  very  definite  and  permanent  supervision 
and  regulation  of  municipal  housing  conditions.  There  must  be  a 
community  guarantee  of  a  single  and  wholesome  standard  of  home 
life,  along  the  normal  lines  of  health,  security,  quiet,  and  con- 
venience. Secondly:  There  must  be  a  systematized  segregation 
from  industrial  life  and  its  attacks  upon  the  home.  Thirdly: 
Permanence,  durability,  and  adaptation  in  the  city  dwelling  must 
be  essential  factors  in  its  construction.  Fourth:  The  city  dwelling 
must  guarantee  the  privacy,  the  sanctity,  and  the  permanence  of 
family  life.  It  must  be  standardized  to  meet  family  conditions — 
not  individual  conditions.  Thus  city  dwelling  is  not  only  a  matter 
of  concern  to  the  city  architect,  but  also  to  the  city  administrator 
and  city  business  man.  Socially  guaranteed  dwelling  arrange- 
ments mean  greater  convenience,  better  health,  a  higher  type  of 
home  life,  and  equal  opportunity  for  all  groups  along  the  lines  of 
racial  progress.  City  building  is  impossible  until  our  city  super- 
structure is  well  planned,  adequately  constructed  with  a  view  to 
permanent  social  investment,  and  socially  regulated  in  the  interest 
of  all. 

To  build  a  healthy  city  should  be  considered  as  practical  an  aim 
of  any  municipal  administration  as  to  build  "a  city  beautiful." 
No  city  that  is  full  of  diseased  bodies  and  minds,  of  men  and  wo- 
men ugly  through  infection,  suffering,  or  overwork,  is  really  "a 
city  beautiful/'  Nor  is  a  city  with  a  high  mortality  rate  resulting 
from  preventable,  contagious,  and  infectious  diseases,  and  from 
accidents,  etc.,  good  material  for  "a  city  efficient/'  The  present 
type  of  city  plan  is  merely  "whitewashing"  the  old  city  when  it 
does  not  call  for  the  elimination  of  preventable  disease.  Our 
program  must  be  revitalized  by  an  increased  value  placed  on 
human  life  in  the  mass.  There  must  be  an  equal  valuation  of  the 
life  of  the  child  in  the  slums  and  the  child  in  the  avenue  mansion. 
We  must  recognize  that  contagion  is  as  dangerous  to  the  rich 
man's  family  as  to  the  family  of  the  low-income  wage  worker. 
The  only  difference  is  that  the  former  has  the  benefit  of  high- 
priced  care  and  diagnosis,  and  thus  escapes  the  mortality  column. 
City  health  should  not  be  a  matter  of  groupal  opportunity.  It  is 
a  matter  of  universal  concern.    And  so  our  program  for  the  build- 

26 


CITY   BUILDING 

ing  of  a  city  along  the  lines  of  community  health  would  be  some- 
thing as  follows: 

First :  Health  must  be  a  recognized  and  capitalized  asset  in  the 
life  of  every  human  being,  the  absence  of  which  lowers  the  in- 
dustrial and  social  efficiency  of  the  community.  The  death  of 
industrial  workers,  either  through  preventable  diseases  or  acci- 
dents, must  be  considered  a  public  disaster  for  which  the  public 
is  directly  responsible.  There  is  as  much  reason,  sentimentally 
speaking,  for  lowering  the  flag  at  half-mast  because  a  broken  filter 
means  the  death  of  a  thousand  people  in  one's  city  in  one  week,  as 
when  an  ocean  liner  goes  down  with  an  equal  number  of  souls. 

Second :  City  health  should  be  guaranteed  in  order  to  insure  the 
old-age  worker.  We  spend  millions  every  year  on  pensions  to  old 
soldiers,  on  the  assumption  that  the  pensioner  is  incapable  of 
doing  the  work  of  the  average  able-bodied  industrial  citizen. 
Transfer  the  same  money  to  the  creating  and  maintaining  of  con- 
ditions that  prevent  premature  old  age,  and  a  large  part  of  our 
problem  is  solved.  With  the  old-age  worker  as  a  part  of  the  social 
mosaic,  we  make  a  definite  advance  in  industrial  processes,  we  have 
gotten  a  new  ideal  in  work  as  well  as  a  new  quality  of  ambition. 
We  not  only  lengthen  the  life  of  the  worker,  and,  therefore,  in- 
crease the  aggregate  of  industrial  energy,  but  we  also  add  to  the 
social  fund  of  efficiency  and  happiness,  and  gain  in  racial  facilities, 
In  short,  we  gain  in  labor  efficiency  and  lose  in  relief  waste. 

Third :  City  health  should  be  looked  upon  as  a  greater  guarantee 
to  the  health  of  the  luxurious  (or  high-income)  class  than  our 
present  haphazard  system.  Disease  is  the  most  intangible,  in- 
sidious aspect  of  city  life  we  have  to  deal  with.  It  is  only  by 
forcing  each  and  every  one  in  the  community  to  realize  that  one 
single  case  of  scarlet  fever  commonly  means  a  hundred  cases  before 
it  can  be  stamped  out,  and  that  the  rich  and  poor  alike  are  sus- 
ceptible to  such  a  disease,  that  we  can  prepare  the  ground  for  a 
normal  point  of  view.  To  get  at  this  phase  of  the  question  most 
expeditiously  it  is  necessary  to  insist  on  an  immediate  and  relentless 
campaign  against  every  form  of  disease-breeding  material  within 
city  limits. 

And,  lastly,  our  program  for  city  health  must  be  related  to  the 
problem  of  race  eugenics.     It  is  impossible  to  create  a  perfect 

27 


CITY   VALUES 

moral  and  physical  type  of  human  being  from  a  race  that  is  disease- 
racked.  We  cannot  change  human  nature,  but  we  can  do  away 
with  the  conditions  that  make  for  imbeciles,  premature  indigents, 
and  criminals.  We  try  to  enforce  laws  against  expectorating  on  the 
pavements  because  we  fear  the  danger  of  tuberculosis.  Yet  we 
allow  that  which  breeds  hundreds  of  tubercular  individuals  in  a 
day  in  all  our  American  cities.  In  the  same  way  we  create  and 
allow  conditions  that  make  for  vice,  and  then  shudder  at  the 
enormous  prevalence  of  venereal  disease.  And  yet  enough  has 
been  shown,  in  the  discussion  of  vice,  to  prove  the  existence  of  a 
weak  and  useless  coming  generation  that  springs  from  a  present 
generation  with  such  a  high  percentage  of  those  venereally  in- 
fected. City  building,  therefore,  must  guarantee  city  health. 
Dirty  streets,  poor  dwellings,  vicious  resorts,  and  over-worked 
citizens  must  go.  With  these  miserable  appendages  Progress 
limps  on  her  way,  and  Democracy  becomes  merely  a  political 
shiboleth.  Civilization  demands  steady  progress  in  order  to  be 
noteworthy,  and  progress  is  always  slow  when  vitality  is  low. 
City  health  means  perfect  vitality,  community  progress,  and  the 
existence  of  a  virile  democratic  standard  of  life. 


City  Communication 
City  communication  includes  more  than  mechanical  transporta- 
tion. Avenues  of  communication  within  the  city  should  comprise 
all  streets,  all  forms  of  transportation,  and  all  waterways  that  have 
to  do  with  the  possible  and  convenient  circulation  of  the  inhabi- 
tants throughout  its  separate  districts.  To  plan  a  transportation 
system  without  reference  to  the  progressive  plotting  of  new  dis- 
tricts is  to  lose  sight  of  the  new  concept  of  city  communication  in 
the  light  of  true  city  building.  Therefore,  in  crystallizing  a  pro- 
gram that  shall  be  specifically  devoted  to  convenient  human  and 
commodity  circulation  within  urban  limits,  a  very  much  larger 
scope  and  a  more  dynamic  reach  must  be  premised  than  is  at 
present  done.  Adequate  city  communication,  for  instance,  is  not 
possible  when  individual  property  rights  can  act  as  an  effective 
bar  to  a  real  solution,  nor  can  dynamic  progress  in  any  direction 
be  made  on  the  old  political  basis,  where  the  sacredness  of  property 

28 


CITY    BUILDING 

rights  and  the  violation  of  human  rights  are  sanctified  to  the  extent 
that  they  are  at  present.  Our  generalizations  for  a  new  program 
must  contain  the  germs  of  the  new  economic  and  social  viewpoint. 
They  must  be  built  on  a  social  concept  of  city  values — not  on 
commercial,  legal,  or  political  ones. 

First:  In  connoting  a  wider  sphere  of  usefulness  and  activity  for 
city  communication,  city  administrators  and  experts  must  lay 
out  a  program  along  lines  of  social  and  moral  evolution.  Every 
possible  avenue  of  human  circulation  and  material  distribution  is 
to  be  used  dynamically  and  thoroughly,  and  in  the  light  of  socially 
scientific  methods. 

Second:  City  communication  should  be  the  most  adaptable 
feature  of  city  life.  By  this  is  meant  adaptation  to  the  constant 
changes  in  the  growth  of  population  and  the  distribution  of  in- 
habitants in  the  various  localities  corresponding  to  the  expansion 
of  the  city  area.  One  of  the  most  notable  aspects  of  urban 
transportation  in  the  United  States  is  its  reluctance  to  adapt 
itself  easily  and  quickly  to  the  social  demands  of  the  community. 
Profits  have  always  been  considered  first.  Possible  improvements 
come  only  when  the  stockholder  is  satisfied.  Both  extension  and 
improvement  of  service,  to  meet  the  constantly  growing  social 
demands  of  the  community  for  efficient  communication,  is  not 
only  possible,  but  socially  imperative.  No  city  dweller  should  be 
forced  to  depend  upon  the  motor  car,  the  taxicab,  or  other  private 
and  incidental  means  of  conveyance.  There  should  be  the  same 
increase  in  the  standards  of  efficiency  in  transportation  that  there 
is  in  business.  Dynamic  progress  through  the  agency  of  public 
utilities  is  not  possible  when  financial  profits  and  social  interests 
are  mixed.  The  stockholder  and  the  citizen  have  never  yet  been 
able  to  agree.  It,  therefore,  would  seem,  assuming  that  the  trans- 
portation system  has  the  largest  element  of  public  interest  of  any 
of  our  municipal  monopolies,  that  urban  society  must  demand  a 
variety  of  city  communication  that  is  controlled  in  the  interest 
of  the  community — and  not  for  profits. 

Third:  City  communication,  as  a  program,  is  only  haphazard 
and,  therefore,  ineffective,  unless  considered  in  relation  to  the 
entire  program  for  city  building.  Transportation  in  the  typical 
American  city  has  been  largely  instrumental  in  determining  not 

29 


CITY   VALUES 

only  the  location  of  our  dwellings,  but  also  their  size  and  con- 
struction. There  is  also  a  distinct  connection  between  efficiently 
planned  transportation  and  clean  streets,  congestion  of  traffic, 
disease,  and  crime.  The  price  of  land,  as  well  as  rents, — and  in- 
ventions looking  to  changes  in  living  conditions, — are  also  modified 
by  certain  phases  of  the  transportation  problem.  These  factors 
must  be  considered  in  any  practical  discussion.  Communication 
is  a  complex  problem  where  costs  and  effects  are  of  a  pluralistic 
rather  than  of  a  monistic  nature.  Improvement  and  extension 
of  service  must  be  standardized  along -human  lines.  The  matter 
of  revenue  is  incidental.  In  other  words,  convenient,  safe,  and 
adequate  communication  is  to  be  as  much  assumed  as  pure  milk, 
good  water,  or  fresh  air. 

City  Recreation 
A  deficit  in  recreation  is  to  the  community  what  the  lack  of 
proper  food  is  to  the  individual.  The  well-to-do  city  dweller  has 
no  end  of  opportunities  for  normal  recreation — all  of  which  is 
gotten  by  the  waving  of  the  dollar  bill.  In  contrast,  the  low- 
income  family  is  socially  incapable  of  providing  itself  with  means 
of  recreation;  or,  what  it  does  get  is,  in  most  cases,  adulterated 
and  in  small  quantities.  To  plan  a  new  city,  to  build  a  beautiful, 
efficient  community,  we  must  provide  the  necessary  quantity  of 
social  foods  in  the  proper  dietary  proportions  for  perfect  social 
assimilation.  Too  much  education  and  too  little  recreation  are  as 
socially  bad  as  too  large  a  quantity  of  meat  in  proportion  to  other 
food-stuffs.  City  building  lacks  one  of  its  most  essential  bases 
when  it  fails  to  take  into  account  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
importance  of  "re-creation" — for  that  is  what  recreation  means. 
The  so-called  evil — or  anti-social — recreations,  such  as  hard  drink- 
ing, disorderly  street  conduct,  vice,  gambling,  etc.,  are  all  definite 
examples  of  energies  deflected  into  wrong  anti-social  directions, 
because  proper  channels  for  the  outlet  of  these  same  energies  were 
not  provided  by  us  as  a  community.  It  is  comparatively  easy  to 
supply  recreation  for  the  child,  since  the  child  is,  to  a  greater 
extent,  convenient  clay  for  social  molding,  and  with  greater 
potentiality  in  the  matter  of  healthy  reaction.  Moreover,  child 
recreation  is  not  supposed  to  be  based  on  the  furnishing  of  a  social 

30 


CITY    BUILDING 

contrast  to  work.  The  adult  needs  recreation  in  proportion  to  the 
fatigue  of  the  individual,  due  to  long  hours,  unhealthy  dwelling 
environment,  and  the  amount  of  education  received.  Not  only 
the  reactions  of  health,  but  also  the  psychological  reactions,  must 
be  taken  into  account.  Social  solidarity,  the  vitalizing  of  a 
healthy  public  opinion,  the  breaking-down  of  class  distinctions 
and  the  various  racial  feuds  so  common  in  this  country  are  all  very 
definite  and  inevitable  results  to  be  gained  through  universal 
adult  recreation.  To  be  planned  for  in  its  highest  and  best  form, 
it  must  regard  the  reactions  of  the  adult  as  of  equal  importance 
to  that  of  the  child.  It  is  a  poor  civilization  that  saves  the  child 
at  the  expense  of  the  parent;  that  wrecks  the  adult  community 
to  acquire  a  more  normal  juvenile  population.  Racial  progress 
is  premised  on  the  health  of  the  present  generation,  not  the  possible 
improvement  of  the  future. 

And  so  our  program  for  practical  recreational  facilities  may  be 
summarized  thus: 

First:  The  problem  of  recreation  must  be  studied  primarily 
from  the  physiological  standpoint  of  the  necessity  of  the  outlet 
of  human  energy,  in  order  to  maintain  an  effective  social  metabo- 
lism. Opportunity  for  play  is  not  to  be  based  on  an  esthetic  value 
of  mere  psychological  momentary  enjoyment.  Recuperation  of 
energy — physical,  mental,  and  moral — must  take  place  along 
recreative  and  conservative  lines.  Working  energy  must  be  built 
up  through  the  expenditure  of  certain  different  kinds  of  human 
energy,  or  the  conserving  of  other  kinds.  The  blood  must  be 
sent  away  from  the  brain;  new  muscles  are  to  be  used;  deadened 
nerves  revitalized. 

Second:  No  distinctions  must  be  made  on  account  of  income. 
It  must  be  as  certain,  as  it  is  possible,  that  recreation  shall  be  en- 
joyed by  every  city  dweller,  irrespective  of  his  salary  (or  wage), 
and  his  position  in  industry.  This  does  not  mean  that  we  are  to 
provide  motor  cars  for  all,  nor  that  compulsory  attendance  at 
concerts  and  the  theater  be  premised.  It  is  not  necessary  to  make 
recreation  compulsory :  the  mere  existence  of  equal  and  unlimited 
opportunities  for  it  will  result  in  an  universal  acceptance  of  its 
advantages.  The  point  to  be  emphasized  is — the  poor  man  shall 
have  as  much  right  to  use  his  leisure  in  ways  that  are  healthy, 

3* 


CITY   VALUES 

pleasurable,  and  educative  as  the  rich  man;  and  to  this  end  we 
must  have  lower-priced  drama,  opera,  and  other  forms  of  artistic 
amusement.  Parks,  playgrounds,  gymnasia,  and  other  facilities 
for  manual  reactions  must  be  at  the  command  of  all — for  the  same 
reason  that  pure  water  is  insisted  upon.  We  must  make  it  as  easy 
for  the  Italian  family  in  the  tenement  colony  to  hear  Caruso  sing, 
to  play  tennis  or  golf,  to  study  and  enjoy  sculpture  and  painting, 
etc.,  as  for  the  millionaire  on  Fifth  Avenue. 

Third:  It  is  impossible  to  expect  that  recreation  will  be  a  means 
of  mass  enjoyment  and  participation  unless  its  forms  are  adapted 
to  the  social  and  economic  needs  of  the  particular  community. 
It  is  only  in  the  realization  of  the  fact  that  enjoyment  must  be 
universally  appreciated  that  certain  forms  can  be  made  practically 
and  immediately  effective.  Recreation  is  to  be  looked  upon,  not 
only  as  a  means  for  the  improving  of  the  health  of  the  individual, 
and  for  providing  outlays  of  energy  along  lines  of  pure  and  social 
enjoyment,  but  also  as  a  means  for  very  definitely  creating  and 
making  permanent  the  social  solidarity  of  the  community.  The 
exclusive  clubs  and  limited  playgrounds  are  alike  anti-social. 
Even  our  public  school  of  to-day  feels  the  devil's  touch  of  discrim- 
ination on  account  of  some  racial  or  income  prejudice.  Recrea- 
tion, to  be  permanently  effective,  must  be  democratic.  Par- 
ticipation in  it  should  be  convenient,  optional,  and  socially  desired. 

And,  lastly,  the  methods — the  particular  forms  which  the 
opportunities  may  take — should  never  be  rigid.  We  have  seen 
what  rigidity  in  policy  and  methods  mean  in  political  and  business 
life.  To-day  the  school  system  in  this  country  is  under  strong 
indictment  as  a  failure.  The  reason  for  public  sentiment  is  the 
assumption  that  rigidity  in  methods  is  unwise,  undemocratic, 
and  impractical — because  it  does  not  give  the  required  results. 
Recreation  should  be  adapted,  not  only  to  the  changing  mode  of 
life  through  various  generations,  but  also  to  the  difference  in 
social  and  economic  conditions  for  any  given  period  or  year.  No 
citizen  ought  to  be  forced  to  employ  his  leisure  in  any  way  set 
by  either  a  few,  or  even  the  minority,  in  the  community.  The 
right  way  is  to  provide  facilities,  mechanical  or  otherwise,  for  the 
enjoyment  of  new  forms  of  recreation  whenever  the  latter  manifest 
themselves. 

32 


CITY    BUILDING 

City  recreation  must,  therefore,  base  its  program  on  a  greater 
importance  of  leisure.  Leisure  should  be  as  definite  a  human  asset 
as  health.  In  fact,  health  and  leisure  are  two  parts  of  the  same 
subject — from  the  standpoint  of  racial  evolution.  Civilization 
is  tested,  from  one  standpoint,  according  to  the  length  of  period 
allowed  the  child  for  play  and  physical  growth  before  we  set  him 
to  work.  A  civilization  that  eliminates  leisure  from  any  portion 
of  its  adult  opportunities  is  on  a  par  with  that  putting  its  children 
to  work  before  the  period  of  childhood  has  been  passed.  Well- 
employed  leisure  is  as  industrially  and  socially  important  as  well- 
employed  labor.  To-day  we  are  beginning  to  realize  the  benefits 
of  organized  labor.  Organised  leisure  is  nothing  more  or  less  than 
socialized  recreation.  Individual  or  class  recreation  is  as  much 
anti-social  as  gambling  or  vice.  Recreation,  to  be  human,  to  be 
effective,  to  be  a  real  part  of  the  building  of  our  new  city,  must  be 
organized  and  socialized  along  dynamic  lines  of  community  and 
racial  evolution. 

City  Industries 

An  equally  definite  and  human  stand  must  be  taken  in  regard 
to  our  attitude  toward  city  industries.  There  is  hardly  a  business 
within  the  municipality  to-day  that  does  not  vitally  affect  the  lives 
and  happiness  of  the  citizens  within  the  community.  We  have 
argued  that  the  transportation  service  shall  be  socially  controlled. 
In  the  same  way,  water,  gas,  electric  light,  milk,  and  food  distribu- 
tion, ice  manufacture,  and  slaughtering  are  activities  that  are 
social  in  their  nature.  The  very  existence  of  necessary  inspection 
in  order  to  guarantee  health  or  promote  greater  convenience  is  in 
itself  an  admission  of  the  social  nature  of  the  enterprise.  The 
point  is :  how  far  shall  we  go  in  the  listing  of  industries  that  shall 
be  socially  controlled,  and  what  ought  to  be  the  policy  with  regard 
to  the  co-ordinating  of  private  and  public  interests? 

First:  Going  on  the  assumption  that  all  city  industries  influence 
city  building  along  social  and  economic  lines,  our  program  for  our 
new  city  must  not  only  recognize  the  existence  of  these  industries 
as  factors  in  community  life,  but  must  refuse  to  allow  private  and 
social  interests  to  conflict  at  any  point.  As  soon  as  these  two  inter- 
ests conflict,  the  new  city  builder  has  obtained  prima  facie  evidence 

33 


CITY   VALUES 

of  the  existence  of  a  social  defect,  for  which  the  remedy  is  socializa- 
tion of  the  particular  enterprise.  As  long  as  there  is  no  public 
protest,  even  from  a  minority,  against  the  status  or  management  of 
any  enterprise  within  city  limits,  we  may  safely  conclude  that  it 
falls  into  the  category  of  private  concerns  that  are  not  ready  for 
community  control.  If  the  city  is  concerned  in  the  inspection  of  a 
particular  industry,  it  is  equally  concerned  with  the  location  of 
plants,  the  management  of  the  business,  and  the  distribution  of  its 
products. 

Second:  It  is  necessary  to  consider  the  community  value,  not 
only  of  the  products  of  an  industry,  but  also  of  its  management, 
prior  to  the  matter  of  financial  dividends.  Location  of  factories, 
of  business  houses,  and  in  fact  of  all  industrial  plants,  should  be  as 
definitely  a  part  of  our  dynamic  city  plan  as  in  the  case  of  dwell- 
ings. There  is  no  logical  reason  why  the  business  man  should  be 
given  prior  right  to  the  opportunities  of  city  environment  over  the 
average  city  dweller.  If  our  cities  are  to  be  considered  as  merely 
industrial  centers  in  the  narrow  sense,  we  had  better  remold  our 
whole  civilization.  City  life  is  primarily  a  life  of  human  beings, 
not  the  life  of  machinery  and  stock  dividends.  The  city  dweller 
should  have,  collectively,  the  first  and  last  word  in  the  re-creation 
of  his  own  environment — not  the  stockholder  and  corporation 
president. 

Third:  City  industries  should  be  placed  under  the  burden  of 
proof  of  their  own  social  efficiency.  Poor  business  management, 
resulting  in  inferior  product  and  inadequate  distribution,  should 
be  socially  penalize^  by  forfeiture  of  existence  or  municipaliza- 
tion. There  should  be  no  such  thing  as  the  exploitation  of  the 
city  dweller  by  any  city  industry,  either  in  the  matters  of  quality 
of  product,  convenience  of  purchase  and  carriage,  or  price. 

Fourth:  The  accepted  fact  that  a  commodity  has  become  a 
social  necessity  should  automatically  result  in  immediate  mu- 
nicipalization. A  social  necessity  is  not  naturally,  and  never 
should  be,  a  source  of  private  exploitation.  It  ought  to  be  an 
unheard-of  thing  to  declare  a  dividend  on  the  stock  of  an  enter- 
prise that  has  become  so  large  and  important  a  part  of  the  life 
of  that  particular  community  that  its  absence  would  be  a  serious 
obstacle  to  the  maintaining  of  the  normal  standard  of  living.     We 

34 


CITY    BUILDING 

might  as  well  recognize  our  present  lack  of  humanitarianism  in  our 
concept  of  the  regulation  of  city  industries.  Our  political  view- 
point, resulting  in  the  sanctity  of  private  property  rights,  results 
in  the  haphazard  location  of  industries  and  acts  as  a  menace  to  a 
normal  city  environment.  To  build  our  city  properly,  the  business 
man  must  exist  for  the  community,  not  the  community  for  the  busi- 
ness man. 

City  Architecture 

The  control  of  the  physical  environment  of  the  city  in  advance 
of  actual  building  is  a  policy  that  the  American  cities,  almost 
without  exception,  never  had.1  As  a  result,  city  growth  has  been 
inharmonious  and  uncomfortable.  Our  communities  have  been 
exploited  for  the  advantage  of  the  onrushing  herd  of  business 
interests  who  demanded  every  inch  of  room  that  was  possible  for 
quick  dividends,  at  the  expense  of  beauty,  health,  and  conveni- 
ence. In  Germany  the  city  is  a  very  permanent  institution.  In 
the  United  States  we  are  apparently  so  afraid  that  it  will  disappear 
before  our  very  eyes  at  any  moment  that  there  is  hardly  any  use 
in  taking  pains  over  its  beautification  or  growth.  The  German 
ideal  is  to  have  his  city  an  artistic  creation  from  every  standpoint 
— industrially,  from  the  standpoint  of  form  and  color,  as  a  place  to 
live  in,  and  in  the  matter  of  normal  growth.  The  American,  at  his 
best,  is  just  as  artistic  as  any  other  race;  the  chief  obstacle  to  his 
being  his  best  at  all  times  is  his  reluctance  to  submerge  his  private 
and  business  self  in  his  artistic  and  social  self,  even  when  his  own 
city  is  concerned. 

First:  A  city  should  be  planned  for  centuries — not  for  years. 
The  measure  of  social  value  in  city  architecture  should  always  be 
the  social  utility  of  the  particular  thing  desired.  Social  utility 
is  a  constant  test,  a  measure  of  social  value  that  fits  any  epoch 
and  any  environment.  There  is  every  reason  why  we  should  plan 
for  the  distant  future,  looking  at  the  city  as  a  permanent  place  of 
abode,  as  a  place  subject  to  unlimited  change  and  growth,  as  a 
physical  entity  that  will  live  through  many  evolutions  in  political 
structure  and  moral  standards.     The  best  reason  that  can  be 

1  Washington,  D.  C,  is  the  only  exception  among  the  large  cities.  It  was  laid 
out  very  definitely  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  to  accommodate  a  million  people. 

35 


CITY   VALUES 

found  for  building  merely  on  the  needs  of  the  present  decade  is 
that  it  involves  only  a  small  expenditure  of  money.  This,  to 
the  average  business  mind,  is  a  decided  virtue.  But,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  permanent  planning  for  the  unlimited  future  not  only 
does  not  require  any  more  initial  outlay,  but  it  also  means  the 
saving  of  an  immense  amount  of  money  which  is  now  wasted  in 
temporary  structure  or  repairs.  The  argument  becomes  more 
impressive  if  the  analogy  of  the  householder,  planning  a  residence 
for  a  growing  family,  is  used. 

Second :  City  architecture  must  concern  itself,  not  only  with  the 
physical  environment  of  the  city,  but  also  the  artificial  conditions 
of  life.  The  residence  district  must  be  protected  from  industrial 
friction.  The  home  should  be  guaranteed  privacy,  quiet,  and 
permanence.  It  is  perfectly  possible  to  so  locate  and  distribute 
our  industries  within  city  limits  that  congestion  of  plants  can  be 
eliminated.  It  is  also  possible  for  business  to  work  under  " one- 
story  "  conditions,  thus  insuring  more  light,  better  air,  and  safer 
and  more  comfortable  labor  conditions.  The  answer  usually 
made  to  this  suggestion,  "  It  can't  be  done,"  is  merely  the  old, 
old  one  of,  "  It  is  being  done,  and  done  successfully. " 

Third:  The  social  regulation  of  city  communication  is  part  of 
the  work  of  the  new  city  architect.  It  is  useless  to  provide  good 
homes  and  well-located  plants,  without  at  the  same  time  affording 
efficient  communication.  Every  avenue  of  transit  and  transfer 
should  be  quickly  and  permanently  utilized.  Communication  should 
act  as  the  great  influencing  factor  in  the  location  of  population 
and  the  distribution  of  products.  It  should  be  the  servant  of 
the  community,  not  the  business  of  a  few  people. 

Fourth:  Our  new  type  of  city  architecture  will  emphasize  the 
importance  of  leisure  as  an  asset.  The  American  city,  except  in  a 
few  cases,  does  not  allow  for  normal  street  life.  There  is  little 
inducement  to  making  use  of  our  parks,  since  the  avenues  of  ap- 
proach are  dirty,  narrow,  or  ugly,  or  because  they  are  so  situated 
that  our  inadequate  transit  facilities  make  them  inaccessible  except 
to  a  very  limited  minority.  As  a  natural  result,  we  live  in  our 
homes,  where  our  leisure  takes  exclusive  and  class  lines.  Our 
amusements  and  pleasures  become  questions  of  limited  group 
interests.    American  home  life  makes  it  possible  to  "shut  out 

36 


CITY    BUILDING 

the  rabble/'  to  be  aristocratic  in  our  leisure,  to  make  easy  the 
establishment  of  a  "Blue  Book"  and  a  "Four  Hundred."  Until 
we  take  the  stand  that  our  city  streets  and  parks  shall  create  defin- 
ite and  equal  opportunities  for  leisure,  our  plan  for  a  new  city  of 
comfort,  pleasure,  and  happiness  is  by  so  much  ineffective.  Poor 
city  architecture  and  temporary  planning  give  us  only  the  type  of 
citizen  that  we  have  at  present:  a  citizen  that  feels  keenly  the 
many  needless  frictions  of  city  life,  and  who  reacts  under  them  in 
ways  that  are  detrimental  to  the  community  as  well  as  to  himself. 
Our  social  defects  are  to  a  large  extent  of  an  institutional  nature, 
and  one  of  the  greatest  in  American  life  of  to-day  is  the  lack  of 
proper  relation  between  the  human  community  and  its  physical 
environment.  Efficient  city  architecture  will  thus  have  to  be 
based  on  the  readjustment  of  relationships,  and  the  elimination  of 
social  frictions  that  come  from  architectural  defects. 


37 


VI.  THE  NEW  CITY  IDEAL  AND  VIEWPOINT 

IT  IS  now  possible,  perhaps,  to  visualize  clearly  the  new  view- 
point toward  urban  activity  and  city  environment.  To 
transfer  the  emphasis  from  one  place  to  another  shifts  the 
center  of  gravity,  so  to  speak,  and  modifies  direction  and  velocity. 
The  present  American  city  of  to-day  is  unequally  ballasted. 
The  center  of  gravity  is  misplaced,  and  progress  is  uneven  and 
slow.  The  crew  are  engaged  in  endless  discussion  and  strife 
over  the  size  of  the  anchor  or  the  particular  number  of  strands  in 
the  new  main-sheet;  and  the  passengers  run  about  helplessly  in 
the  confusion,  endeavoring  to  help  the  crew,  getting  in  each  other's 
way,  and  often  being  knocked  down  in  the  factional  scuffles. 
Orders  come  from  everywhere,  and  every  one  disclaims  responsi- 
bility for  obedience.  Meanwhile  the  boat  plows  sluggishly  through 
the  calm  sea,  rocking  from  side  to  side  and  leaving  a  tremendous 
wake  behind  that  looks  like  the  proverbial  "cow-path."  No  one 
stops  to  think  of  scientifically  looking  for  the  difficulty,  of  going 
below  the  water-line  to  find  the  trouble.  The  rigging  is  supposed 
to  be  the  key  to  good  or  bad  results:  if  only  the  proper  arrange- 
ment of  ropes  can  be  effected,  the  ship  will  leap  ahead  on  a  straight 
and  even  keel. 

The  American  citizen  is  definitely  a  product  of  his  own  environ- 
ment as  well  as  his  own  racial  heredity.  He  is  descended  from 
pioneer  ancestors,  some  of  Puritan  or  Friendly  stock,  some  of 
Dutch  or  Huguenot — but  all  of  whom  had  to  work  and  fight  for 
the  comforts  and  means  of  life.  Their  business  was  to  make 
existence  possible  for  themselves  and  their  families.  Their 
standard  of  living  was  a  God-fearing,  Indian-killing,  brute  stand- 
ard. But  three  centuries  of  material  progress,  of  discovery,  of 
invention  and  improvement,  have  changed  the  forces  that  used  to 
act  as  pressures.  Labor-saving  machinery  and  greater  efficiency, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  security  of  national  isolation,  on  the 
other,  have  ameliorated  the  intensity  of  the  bread-winning  struggle. 

38 


THE   NEW   CITY   IDEAL  AND   VIEWPOINT 

We  no  longer  have  to  fight  in  order  to  live.  But  traditions  and 
habits  are  strong.  Actions  still  take  place  automatically — the 
result  of  a  mold  of  mind  that  is  generations  old.  We  no  longer 
have  to  work  the  way  we  did — but  we  think  we  have.  We  look  at 
our  material  work  through  a  microscope,  and  it  looms  up,  tre- 
mendous and  all-important.  It  is  the  old  Genie  of  the  Bottle — 
all-pervading  and  tyrannical.  In  contrast,  we  gaze  at  our  few 
pleasures  through  the  telescope.  The  effect  is  to  throw  the  objects 
looked  at  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  normal  relations  with  the 
surroundings.  We  try  to  get  a  bird's-eye  view  of  recreative  life, 
for  we  are  reluctant  to  spare  too  much  time  from  our  work.  The 
American  prides  himself  on  long  office  hours,  no  idle  class  or 
aristocracy,  and  his  ability  to  see  a  foreign  country  in  a  week. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  exhibit  an  extreme  reluctance  to  the 
acceptance  of  anything  that  savors  of  paternalism  or  bureaucracy. 
We  orate  and  write  about  "strong  republican  government/'  and 
then  make  it  as  difficult  as  possible  for  any  kind  of  governmental 
machinery  to  work  to  the  limit  of  its  social  efficiency  by  refusing 
to  supply  the  necessary  social  co-operation.  A  philosopher  once 
remarked :  "  The  anarchist  is  the  man  who  does  not  want  govern- 
ment for  any  one;  the  socialist  is  the  man  who  wants  government 
for  every  one;  the  individualist  is  the  man  who  wants  government 
for  every  one — but  himself."  The  American  business  man  is  still 
intensely  individualistic.  Our  laws  on  private  property  illustrate 
this  trait  to  a  nicety.  Business  is  an  individual  matter,  not  to  be 
touched  by  "sovereign"  government,  though  business  is  loud  in  its 
appeals  for  help  from  this  same  government  when  it  is  "  up  against" 
any  problem  that  it  cannot  solve  itself.  Recognition  of  the  labor 
union  and  the  recall  of  judges  are  equally  damned,  because  the 
business  man  sees  in  these  two  "theories"  the  subversion  of  his 
time-honored  right  to  special  privilege — or,  in  other  words,  the 
right  to  run  his  own  concern  in  his  own  individual  way,  regardless 
of  social  costs.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  the  "masses"  are  beginning 
to  stir — to  feel  the  pain  of  constant,  long-endured  pressures  that 
are  the  result  of  man-made,  environmental  frictions?  Is  it  sur- 
prising, that  with  the  two  viewpoints,  there  is  a  political  and  social 
schism  that  causes  discontent,  crime,  rebellion,  and  the  break- 
down in  religious  and  ethical  standards  ? 

39 


CITY   VALUES 

The  individual  viewpoint  is  essentially  political.  Moreover, 
it  is  selfish  and  therefore  anti-social.  It  thus  becomes  ineffec- 
tive for  large  aggregations — in  short,  for  city  life.  The  results 
show  a  warped  and  stunted  social  and  economic  development,  as 
well  as  a  progress  that  is  absurdly  slow.  We  try  to  excuse  our- 
selves with  the  argument,  "We  can't  change  conditions  too 
quickly,  it  might  be  bad  for  business/'  Or,  "  It  must  be  a  gradual 
process  of  evolution";  or,  again,  "Yes,  I  know  they  are  doing  it 
successfully  in  Europe,  but  it  won't  work  here.  The  American 
public  will  not  stand  for  such  a  radical  change."  These  are  the 
familiar  salves  to  our  political  and  individualistic  consciences. 
In  the  mean  time  we  are  suffering  losses — social,  moral,  and 
monetary — that  retard  progress  and  make  life  inconvenient  and 
incomplete.  We  are  top-heavy  with  business.  We  have  loaded 
the  decks  with  structural  iron,  stocks,  and  sweatshops.  It  is  not 
evenly  distributed,  nor  securely  battened  down.  Victor  Hugo, 
in  one  of  his  most  impressive  novels,  describes  with  horrible 
vividness  the  experience  of  a  loose  cannon,  rolling  about  the  deck 
of  a  storm-tossed  vessel,  strewing  the  dead  in  its  richotting  path, 
and  all  but  completely  wrecking  the  ship.  To-day,  our  American 
cities  allow  the  irresponsible  and  unregulated  conduct  of  their 
business  concerns  to  result  in  losses  that  all  in  the  community  must 
pay.  When  the  losses  are  too  keenly  felt,  a  shift  is  attempted  to  a 
new  kind  of  government,  or  a  new  method  of  keeping  books  is 
tried,  or  a  new  set  of  officials  is  promptly  elected  to  prevent  future 
calamities.  But  we  do  not  look  below  the  water-line.  The 
primary  causes  remain  undiscovered,  and  the  reform  is  entirely 
superficial. 

What  we  need  is  a  brand-new  way  of  looking  at  city  life  before 
we  attempt  to  renovate  what  we  have  now.  To  build  an  elevated 
line  when  the  subway  has  been  invented  is  a  static  and  superficial 
attempt  at  progress.  To  spend  years  in  the  construction  of  a 
bridge  that  is  inadequate  for  the  increased  traffic  when  completed 
is  a  waste  of  good  engineering  skill  and  economic  foresight — to 
say  nothing  of  money.  To  consider  only  the  present  generation's 
needs  is  to  invite  corruption  and  lack  of  responsibility.  "Quick 
investment"  is  always  at  a  premium  under  such  conditions. 
There  is  no  longer  any  fear  of  the  sudden  end  of  the  world.    This 

40 


THE   NEW   CITY   IDEAL  AND   VIEWPOINT     '-'"**'*  J  *:  ;/ 

point  was  settled  about  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  Why  not 
provide,  then,  for  the  next  century  as  well  as  this?  The  basic 
reason  for  our  political  corruption — especially  in  the  cities — is  this 
"grab-quick"  attitude  of  mind  that  we  all  possess.  Until  we 
make  our  standards  of  work,  life,  and  progress  dynamic  ones,  until 
we  value  human  existence  in  terms  of  racial  progress  instead  of 
industrial  units,  until  our  concept  of  life  is  pluralistic — city  de- 
velopment will  be  slow,  costly,  unhappy,  and  inefficient.  A  new 
balance  sheet  must  be  struck  off  with  some  new  economic  items 
substituted  for  the  old  monetary  ones.  New  values  must  be 
created  by  new  demands.  Leisure,  health,  convenience,  security, 
and  a  higher  type  of  morality  must  be  predicated  as  definite  and 
necessary  city  assets.  City  advertising  in  the  future  will  tell  of 
the  then  obviously  accepted  advantages  of  education,  amusement, 
health,  and  convenience — instead  of  proclaiming  the  now  highly 
thought  of  superiority  in  location  for  sweatshops,  banks,  textile 
mills,  and  slaughter-houses.  It  should  be  a  universally  accepted 
axiom  of  city  life  that  public  and  private  interests  shall  never  come 
into  conflict.  And  they  never  will  when  community  concern  is  as 
common  and  broad  as  citizenship.  In  fact,  real  citizenship  must 
mean  a  direct  part  in  the  social  control  of  public  activities  in  city 
life.  Expansion,  change,  or  innovation  ought  never  to  be  guided 
by  individuals,  or  for  individual  interests.  Efficient  urban  life 
will  come  to  mean  the  daily  enjoyment  of  every  privilege  and 
guarantee  to  human  comfort  and  security  that  is  possible  in  any 
given  epoch.  This  will  mean  literally  a  dynamic  existence,  where 
there  is  constant  change  in  ideals  and  reactions,  and  therefore  a 
corresponding  change  in  ways  of  supplying  the  demands  set  up 
by  the  ideals.  Individualism  will  still  be  a  part  of  life.  But  it 
will  be  socially  controlled,  and  as  such  will  represent  the  great 
motive  force  in  the  single  man  or  small  group  that  leads  the  way 
through  the  centuries  as  the  inevitable  pioneer  in  the  arts  or 
sciences. 

And  so  our  new  city  will  be  built  along  brand-new  lines:  lines 
of  beauty,  comfort,  and  convenience.  It  will  then  seem  ridiculous 
to  us,  this  present  city  plan  of  ours.  We  will  wonder  how  we  got 
along  at  all.  But  the  rebuilding  is  possible  only  where  community 
interest  is  potential,  vivid,  and  constant;  where  social  rights  are 

4i 


CITY  VALUES 

emphasized;  where  private  privilege  extends  only  to  the  point 
where  others  may  suffer;  and  where  primary,  pluralistic  causes 
are  discovered  for  our  maladjustments,  and  where  our  programs 
are  based  on  racial  rather  than  particular  needs  and  desires. 

University  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
May  25,  1912 


42 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 
Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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General  Library 

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Berkeley 


3: /0  4  13 


HT  151 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


